Money transfers to Georgia down by 9.6% in May
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, June 17
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG), released the information on money transfers to Georgia in May. According to the statistics, the volume of money transfers from abroad constituted $131.8 million (GEL421.6 million), which is 9.6% ($13.9 million) less than the amount in May 2019.
The vast majority (92.8%) of all money transfers from abroad came from 14 largest partner countries, with the volume of transfers from these countries each exceeding $1 million last month. In May 2019, the share of these 14 countries constituted 89.9% percent of the total volume of money transfers.
In May 2020, $13.6 million was transferred from Georgia, which is 33.7% less as compared to $20.5 million in May 2019.
According to the National Bank, the decline was the sharpest from the Russian Federation, from which $19.77 million was transferred in May, 43% less than the previous year. From Italy, the volume of remittances increased by 35% instead of decreasing.
All in all, Italy, Russia and Greece were the largest remittance senders in Georgia in April 2020. Georgia received $27.59 million from Italy and $18.82 million from Greece (13% increase over the previous year).
After Italy, Russia and Greece, other countries regularly sending money transfers to Georgia in May 2020 included: United States – $15.21 million; Israel – $11.28 million; Turkey – $7.42 million; Germany – $5.34 million; Ukraine – $3.67 million; Azerbaijan – $3.56 million; Spain – $3.23 million; Poland – $2.02 million; France – $1.86 million; Canada - $1.39 million; UK - $1.03 million.
Koba Gvenetadze, President of the National Bank of Georgia, published a post on his Facebook page regarding the statistics of May remittances . Gvenetadze wrote that the 42.3% drop in remittances in April was followed by a decrease of only 9.6% in the volume of remittances in May, which is a reliable indicator against the background of the COVID-19 crisis and the negative expectations associated with it. Gvenetadze said that if the reduction in remittances is in this range, then the tax balance deficit will no longer be as high as originally suggested.
“The dynamics of remittances are encouraging: If remittances fell 42.3% year-on-year in April, the decline was only 9.6% in May… If this tendency continues, the current account deficit will not be as high, as projected by basic prognosis so far. This, in turn, will have a positive impact on both economic activity and the exchange rate,” Gvenetadze wrote.
